Sydney – Melbourne

On March 21, 1931 at 01:15 PM, Sydney – Melbourne experienced a crash involving Avro 618 Ten, operated by Australian National Airways - ANA, with the event recorded near Jindabyne New South Wales.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was flight at a mountains crash site.

8 people were known to be on board, 8 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 2, crew fatalities: 2, passengers on board: 6, passenger fatalities: 6, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is weather. The three engine aircraft departed Sydney at 0810LT bound for Melbourne. En route, the crew encountered strong unfavorable winds and the weather conditions worsened with poor visibility. The aircraft named 'Southern Cloud' hit the slope of a mountain located in the Snowy Mountains, in the Kosciuszko National Park, west of Jindabyne. SAR were initiated but no trace of the aircraft nor the eight occupants were found, so all operations were eventually suspended. On 26 October 1958, more than 27 years later, Tom Sonter, a man aged 22, found the wreckage while on a walk in the bush. The crash occurred in a very inaccessible area. Crew: Travis W. Shortridge, pilot, Charles I. Dunnell, copilot. Passengers: Elsie May Glasgow, Clyde C. Hood, Hubert A. Farall, Julian Margules, William O’Reilly, Claire Stokes.

Aircraft reference details include registration VH-UMF, MSN 241, year of manufacture 1929.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately -36.4154°, 148.6212°.